Political Quotes

“Mr. President, the most important three words in our Constitution are the first three--``We the People''--the mission statement for our Nation, laid out in supersized font so that no one would forget what this document, our Constitution, is all about. Our Founders did not start out by writing ``We the privileged.'' They did not call for a document or a form of government for ``We the powerful.'' Indeed, they wanted to make clear that the structure of the government they were founding would be very different from those in Europe that functioned for the privileged and the powerful. As President Lincoln summarized, we are a Nation of the people, by the people, and for the people. That is the vision. That is the vision that I have been coming to the floor and talking about for the last year and a half--about the importance of a government that responds to the issues that affect the citizens across this country, that listens to the people of this Nation. It was President Jefferson who said that the mother principle of the United States is that we have a government within which each citizen has an equal voice. Admittedly, we had some deep flaws that had to be corrected in order to reach that objective, but that vision of each citizen's having an equal voice was the only way that the government would reflect the will of the people and make decisions that would reflect the will of the people.…”